Information appliance architecture

Abstract

An architecture for an information appliance adapted for a specific application supports a variety of appliance personalities, relying on a single core technology. The information appliance comprises an application-optimized hardware platform, including a processor, a display coupled to the processor, an input / output device coupled to an information source and to the processor, a user input device, and working memory coupled to the processor. Non-volatile memory is coupled to the processor and stores appliance operating software and application software. The appliance operating software includes logic executed by the processor, which manages information flow from the information source through the working memory to the display, and the application software includes logic executed by the processor and responsive to the user input to manage selection of information from the information source. The appliance operating software includes an operating system kernel that is adapted for the processor, and a system library that includes logic providing an interface to the application software. An operating system service layer provides an abstraction function between the system library and the appliance operating system kernel and hardware, so that the logic in the system library and above, such as in the application itself, is executable with a development platform operating system which is completely different from the operating system of the appliance.

Description

[0001]This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08 / 743,803, filed Nov. 5, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,889,990 now allowed.—all of which are incorporated herein by reference.LIMITED COPYRIGHT WAIVER[0002]A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material to which the claim of copyright protection is made. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by any person of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office file or records, but reserves all other rights whatsoever.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]1. Field of the Invention[0004]The present invention relates to an architecture for development and implementation of easy-to-use, low cost appliances, targeted at connecting average consumers to emerging on-line information services and other information sources.[0005]2. Description of Related Art[0006]Using computers, individuals are able to access a tremendous amount of information. With ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]According to the present invention, a new class of consumer appliances for homes, schools, and offices is developed which blend the intuitive ease of use, convenience and affordability of consumer appliances with the power of computers having special purpose hardware platforms, in order to make electronic information far more accessible to consumers. Thus, the present invention can be characterized as an architecture for an information appliance adapted for a specific application. The architecture supports a variety of appliance personalities, relying on a single core technology. The core technology is designed to enable development of the appliance architecture software on a general purpose computer, relying on the vast store of software development tools and techniques available for general purpose platforms. A completed function-specific application matched to the application optimized hardware platform for the appliance is thereby provided.

[0012]The appliance operating software includes an operating system kernel that is adapted for the processor and a system library that includes logic providing an interface to the application software. An operating system service layer provides an application-to-platform abstraction function so that the logic in the system library and above, such as in the application itself, is executable with both the operating system kernel and a development platform operating system which is completely different from the operating system kernel of the appliance. In this way, the application is developed using an application foundation based on the system library, in a development platform, and automatically transferred to an appliance architecture with modification only in the operating system service layer. The only change needed in the code for it to run on a development platform is in the appliance operating system service layer module. The operating system service layer module for the appliance architecture is replaced by a development platform operating system service layer module so that any dissimilarities between the appliance and the development platform are localized at a single module in the code. Accordingly, an application development platform is provided by which a variety of information appliances can be designed on general purpose hardware and implemented on application-specific hardware. This vastly reduces the development time, and the hardware cost for special purpose information appliances, such as web browsers, CD-ROM library browsers, electronic mail appliances, and the like.

[0014]The memory management resources, according to another aspect of the present invention, are implemented at the system library level, in order to take advantage of the nature of the special purpose information appliance architecture. Thus, at the system library level, a memory caching algorithm is implemented with least recently used (LRU) memory that allows for management of system memory in the special purpose appliance architecture by software in the application foundation. The caching at the application foundation level takes advantage of the nature of the appliance as a source of information. Because the information sets accessible at web sites and through CD-ROMs and other types of information sources, are generally replaceable, LRU algorithms can be used which discard incoming information to the appliance, without complex management of such information in the application layer code. Again, this greatly reduces the complexity of the application development process, and optimizes the utilization of the hardware resources in the appliance architecture.

[0016]Accordingly, the appliance architecture of the present invention provides a complete solution to the problem of development of special purpose, low-cost information appliances encompassing hardware, system software, and applications. The technology enables the creation of a new generation of easy to use low cost appliances targeted at connecting average consumers to emerging information services.

Problems solved by technology

The general purpose nature of personal computers keeps the cost of these systems high.

Thus, if an individual uses a personal computer only for the purpose of gathering information from a CD-ROM, without taking advantage of a wide variety of other applications for which the personal computer is intended to work, then resources in the personal computer will be wasted.

However, the development of applications for special purpose platforms is often an intensive design effort.

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